Some few politicians, nevertheless, there were among us (the very politicians I have so justly extolled) of deeper penetration and more enlarged views, who scrupled not to give shrewd hints, that the alliance between England and Scotland teemed with the same mischief; but these insinuations were supposed to be the effects of private interest, or of a malignant disposition; or, at the best, the mere pleasantries of idle wags. Nor indeed (if what has been said of the North Britons be admitted) ought it to pass for matter of wonder that what we emphatically call the Union, should appear to vulgar eyes totally different from the alliance between the people of whom I have been speaking. It was, therefore, the prevailing and common opinion, that an Englishman might, with equal reason, be jealous of a man born in another country or city, or of his next door neighbour, or of his brother, as of a Scotchman. Now no man can be found so foolish as to own such a jealousy, how much soever he may feel it; all men being agreed to allow, that there cannot be a surer mark of a shallow understanding, and a wicked temper; yet it sometimes happens in private families, that the elder son, either from the vanity or overweening fondness which people feel for their first productions, or from novelty, or the ambition of transmitting to posterity their names, titles, and possessions, is dandled and cockered in his infancy, pampered in his childhood, flattered in his follies, and indulged in his vices; during his youth exempted from the drudgery of reading and study, from the labours and anxieties of trade, and from the fatigues and dangers of war; secured from want by the liberality of his parents, and from all solicitude about the future, but for the speedy removal of one only obstacle to the accomplishment of all his wishes; carefully trained, indeed, to those noble principles which create authority and distinction in the great scenes of pleasure and idleness; but instructed in no other. The fate of his younger brother is frequently very different: if he be fed, cloathed, and taught, it is all he has a right to expect; he must be flogged to his books; his passions, follies, and vices, must be perpetually controuled, that they may not obstruct his fortune in the world; and he must be, after all this, compelled to some profession, art, or business, to keep him from starving, when his parents cannot or will not contribute any longer to his support. Now if he should chance, in the course of such an education, to learn the habits of temperance, frugality, and industry, and qualify himself, after the hard labour of many years, for the employment or profession of a divine, a statesman, a lawyer, a physician, an artist, a merchant, &c. one would naturally suppose that his elder brother would rejoice in his success; and being himself totally ignorant and incapable of all these matters, would court his assistance, as often as his business, his pleasures, his affairs,